The Greatest Unknown Tale of Wilt Chamberlain

The Greatest Unknown Tale of Wilt Chamberlain.

Wilt Chamberlain wore the number 13 throughout his whole basketball career, right? The number is widely recognized as being associated with the Big Dipper. In addition to being the number he wore in high school in Philadelphia and at Kansas University, it has been retired by the three teams he played for—the Warriors, 76ers, and Lakers. However, Wilt donned two other extremely rare numbers during his career in sports.

Let’s begin with the number twelve, which he apparently wore first. For the most of his career, Wilt had worn the renowned 13 while attending Kansas. Since he had worn the same number throughout high school, as previously indicated, it was reasonable to assume that he would continue to wear it for his junior season. But at some point during the 1957–58 season, Wilt supposedly altered his number to 12 (you’ll understand why I say this later). Naturally, despite missing some of the season due to injury, Wilt was selected unanimously for the NCAA First Team All-America, proving that the number change had no detrimental effect on his performance on the court. In any case, that’s.

A picture of the autographed jersey, with the listing stating “From Chamberlain Estate” and a sharpie reading “Wilt Chamberlain #12” directly beneath the large-printed front jersey number, supports the claim. I watched a video of Chamberlain playing versus Northwestern on December 7, 1957, to verify the story that Wilt wore a different jersey number, as I had never heard of it before. To further muddy the waters, it clearly depicts Chamberlain wearing the #13, dispelling any possibility that Wilt wore the 12 for the whole 1957–58 season.

To further muddy the waters, it clearly depicts Chamberlain wearing the #13, dispelling any possibility that Wilt wore the 12 for the whole 1957–58 season. Next, I looked up the whole roster for the 1957–58 Kansas Jayhawks, which includes each player’s jersey number. As expected, Wilt’s position for that season on the Jayhawks’ official athletic website was #13. So I reasoned, “Perhaps he was wearing 12 in a single game?” I searched the internet for such an event out of curiosity, but I found nothing.

However, quInterestingly enough, though, there was not a single Kansas player with the number #12 on the roster. This leaves the door open for Chamberlain to wear the number for one game or for a brief period of time without any documentation, instead of it possibly belonging to another player, as I had previously believed while doing my research. So, the #12 case has an unsolved ending. surprisingly,

So, that whole #12 story may have simply been a ruse, but we may never know. Perhaps it was all made up to sell a jersey, or it was all true and has just gone so far under the radar that there are no existing films or photos of Chamberlain wearing the jersey number. However, that is certainly not the case for the other mysterious number that Wilt Chamberlain wore at another point in his career. The story is just as hazy and overlooked, but has more proof behind it than a listing on a website and an autograph.

This is the story of Wilt Chamberlain and his 54, as related by an inquisitive and perceptive fan half a century after he adopted the peculiar number.

I’m a big lover of basketball from the 1950s and 60s, so when I saw this 20-minute mini-documentary on YouTube about the 1966–1967 season, I didn’t hesitate to watch it. uploaded by a person going by the handle “Hal15Greer,” one of my faves when it comes to vintage video, such as game tape, I knew it would be a good piece full of the day’s best clips and possibly some I hadn’t seen before. As expected, I was blown away by the film in less than a minute.

We are shown a few clips from two games: a 76ers vs. Celtics game and a Knicks vs. 76ers match. These are followed by clips of Alex Hannum, the head coach of the team that won the championship that year, and Bill Russell, the center for the Boston Celtics and Wilt’s main rival, talking about the season. We’ll be concentrating on the latter in this instance.

A clip from the Knicks game starts at the forty-second mark. Hal Greer is shown dribbling the ball when the camera pans to a large man who is facing away from the camera.